Café Society (2016)

Anyone wondering why Woody Allen's 2017 Wonder Wheel about a love triangle on Coney Island in the 1950s is so underwhelming should watch 2016s Café Society, the same film but set in 1930s Hollywood - a far more satisfying movie on account of its jaunty pace, occasional wry humour and its being held together by an engaging theme: the characters, either gritty realists or dreamers of the high life, each find themselves whimsically contemplating Life's other path, whereas Wonder Wheel's Ginny was trapped going round and round on the same thoroughly unglamorous amusement park ride.

★★★★☆

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Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (2014)

On the very busy day of his older brother's prom, his sister's school theatre performance of Peter Pan, and his twelfth birthday, Alexander experiences an especially bad but very funny day, in this good-natured Disney family comedy based on Judith Viorst's book.

★★★☆☆

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Foxcatcher (2014)

Behind the Candelabra was also a true story about a dysfunctional relationship that develops between a man of great wealth and his young impressionable charge upon whom he has an unhealthy psychological effect, but here the context is Olympic wrestling and medals, not showbiz and glamour, and where Candelabra tapped into the black humour of its situation, Foxcatcher is a far more grim work about low-affect characters moving inexorably towards a tragic, senseless crime.

★★★★☆

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The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (2013)

Siegfried and Roy-style magicians find their Vegas-style magic show under threat from a brash, grungy street performer, in a well-executed comedy that is often very funny, with a final scene that had me in tears of laughter.

★★★★☆

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